{"id":94136,"date":"2025-08-27T03:45:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T07:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=94136"},"modified":"2025-08-28T10:13:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T14:13:24","slug":"broadcast-journalist-brings-experience-to-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/08_27_2025\/broadcast-journalist-brings-experience-to-classroom","title":{"rendered":"Broadcast Journalist Brings Experience to Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven Jackson has been appearing on local television screens for more than a decade as a reporter and anchor for WTOL 11.<\/p>\n

Now the veteran journalist is trading the newsroom for the classroom to share his industry insights with the next generation of journalists as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Communication and Media.<\/p>\n

\"Steven

Steven Jackson, left, a longtime reporter and anchor for WTOL 11, joined colleagues Amanda Fay and Kaylee Bowers for a production of Good Day at UToledo\u2019s Savage Arena in 2024.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cSteven is the real deal,\u201d said Dr. Benjamin Myers, a professor and chair of the Department of Communication and Media. \u201cHe brings years of experience, a clear sense of industry trends and lots of connections in the Toledo area. He instantly elevates our media program and students are going to benefit from learning from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson joins a strong team at The University of Toledo, where communication and media students benefit from ample experiential learning opportunities including a student-run newspaper and radio station and courses like Multimedia Journalism, which facilitates the student-run, student-produced newscast UT:10, and Live Sports Production, which trains students as camera operators, audio technicians, graphics operators, video replay operators and production assistants in live broadcasts for ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jackson said he\u2019s likewise looking forward to putting his students in the field in courses like Single Camera Production. It’s one of three he\u2019s teaching this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to making this very hands-on,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot of doing. There will be some lecturing but we\u2019re stepping outside of the classroom a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson knows well the value of hands-on experience \u2014 and of professors who draw on their own real-world insights as they facilitate these opportunities.<\/p>\n

He benefited from such a professor at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, where the suburban Chicago native pursued an undergraduate degree in mass communications and landed a job at a local television station by his senior year. He learned his way around a newsroom working weekends as a behind-the-camera editor and photographer at WAPT, always showing up in a suit and tie in hopes of catching his big break on-air.<\/p>\n

That opportunity came on a providentially slow news day over the holidays.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a story about Christmas lights in the community,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThe assistant news director called me that night after it aired and he critiqued it, and from then on I would also shoot, edit and report from time to time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resume he\u2019d developed by the time he graduated enabled him to land a job at Toledo\u2019s WTOL 11, where over the next dozen years he covered the full spectrum of newsroom roles \u2014 on-camera and behind-the scenes, in the field and in the studio, the adrenaline rush of breaking news and, most recently, the opportunity to develop a relationship with morning viewers as the personable traffic anchor and co-host of the morning show \u201cGood Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

His favorite part of the job?<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the opportunity to connect with people,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cYou have a unique opportunity to have people open up to you as a journalist. That\u2019s something that I\u2019ve always enjoyed and that I think I\u2019ll miss the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson now looks forward to sharing the challenges and opportunities of the industry with students at UToledo, drawing on his experiences and connections to explore how to apply old-school journalistic principles in an ever-changing media landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to be here,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to be a Rocket.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steven Jackson, who\u2019s been appearing on local television screens for more than a decade as a reporter and anchor for WTOL 11, recently joined UToledo as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Communication and Media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":908,"featured_media":94137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,498,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94139,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94136\/revisions\/94139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}